Garrett Hongo was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for the poetry collection The River of Heaven. His other books of poetry include Yellow Light and Coral Road. The distinguished professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon and a regular contributor to SoundStage! Ultra, Hongo also authored Volcano: A Memoir of Hawaiʻi and The Mirror Diary: Selected Essays. Writing about his lifelong passion for sound reproduction equipment, music in many formats, and the poetic voices that influenced him most, The Perfect Sound is a celebration of all things audio.

The Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University and the poetry editor of The Harvard Review, Major Jackson is the author of five books of poetry, including The Absurd Man and Leaving Saturn. His many honors include the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, a Whiting Writers' Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has published poems and essays in a wide variety of periodicals, including The New Yorker, Paris Review, and Ploughshares. (recorded 3/2/2022)